My top photo for 2014 is also my favorite among those added to my RP portfolio this year, perhaps as much for the location as for the photo itself. Ever since I stayed at the Izaak Walton Inn for the first time, it has been one of my favorite spots, even if I don't get there very often. I didn't get to stay there this trip - I was just passing through on my way back to the Whitefish Amtrak station after a trip to Calgary - but I enjoyed the chance to drop by and see the place.

Jon

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"Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it." - Mark Twain

My trip to the Black Hills was amazing. I believe I am the first person to ever shoot a matched set of RCP&E engines together, and the weather was simply amazing.

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I personally have had a problem with those trying to tell us to turn railroad photography into an "art form." It's fine for them to do so, I welcome it in fact, but what I do have a problem with is that the practitioners of the more "arty" shots, I have found, tend to look down their nose's at others who are shooting more "mundane" shots.
Railroad photography is what you make of it, but one way is not "better" than another, IMHO. Unless you have a pole right thought the nose of the engine! -SG

I'm just going to post this one, definitely my favorite shot from my trip to Ohio to see 765 and possibly my fav of the year. The misty weather helped me out here as the scheduling of the train and sun angle/shadows weren't going to line up. I was pleased to come home with a photo of this popular engine at a unique location.

This one was my most viewed for the year, and probably my favorite fall photo I've ever taken, and the best I can say about this photo is that it was better to be lucky than good, especially since it got cloudy about 20 minutes before the train showed up. If it had stayed sunny, no shot.

The first of my 2 People's Choice winners for the year, definite winner from my trip to Pennsylvania this summer. I also had the privilege to shoot this next to fellow RP'er and regular forum contributor Carl Massart, it was a great morning cruising along the NS Pittsburgh line with him leading the way!

With the acquisition of some flashes, night flash has become a new aspect I am still learning. While I am nowhere near the level of skill of such RP'ers Gary Knapp and Kevin Burkholder, their work keeps me motivated to work harder and possibly reach their level someday.

One of those shots you don't know how well it will look until you post process, but this one just turned out real well, and was a favorite from the Pennsylvania trip with fellow RP'er Michael Nowakowski, even if it was a simple shot of helpers.

On the trip home we swung down to Meyersdale for the Maple Festival and to get some syrup. The snow picked up so much that I was afraid to go Mance's Curve and had to settle for Sand Patch instead. Got lucky and only had to wait ten minutes before this showed up

I didn't upload much to RP this year - actually only a dozen hit the database from my camera in 2014. And of those twelve, 10 were taken after dark... Here's my 8 favs from the year in no particular order...

And finally for this one as a reminder to document the fallen flags and paint schemes that are so quickly disappearing. Note the write up that I included at the time:

"Every now and then you can find a special paint scheme in the rail yards, such as this UP veteran box car which still carries the 1960's slogan Automated Railway. Although a bit faded, it is amazing that this box car has remained otherwise untouched for over 50 years."

I chose this one because Bellevue is such a nice place with great memories going back. I waited with a handful of people and it is nice seeing the small towns turn out(the stop area was jammed). I also like the existing night night shots and they are not too easy to get accepted. On another note I later found out my wife's niece was waiting only a block away as she worked a semester at Rockwell so it was a good new memory.

We had quite a bit of snow earlier this year. Enough to screw up my student teaching schedule to allow me some interesting shots. Here's two stack trains by the college on days I should have been teaching.

Contracted some sort of bug in March, but already had a trip planned to WV/MD on CSX and NS. Shepherdstown is one of my favorite locations in that area and while I like this shot, I barely had any effort to get out of the car.

For a number of reasons 2014 was a very slow year for me with respect to rail photography. Most of the pictures that made it on this year were from previous years. However, I did get one that I thought was pretty good.

And finally for this one as a reminder to document the fallen flags and paint schemes that are so quickly disappearing. Note the write up that I included at the time:

"Every now and then you can find a special paint scheme in the rail yards, such as this UP veteran box car which still carries the 1960's slogan Automated Railway. Although a bit faded, it is amazing that this box car has remained otherwise untouched for over 50 years."

One of my favorite shots from the BR&W - bet it would've had more "success" on RP had it been posted first in a series vs last. Love all the snow in the shot which made the photo more unique then others simply
taken either before or after the storm.